[upchuck]

I have been giving some thought to the implications of the Fair Tax.

Not on taxes, but rather on the "tax industry" that has been built up around our current convoluted mess we call a tax code.

Most of the people sucking the tit of this industry will be out of business when the Fair Tax is implemented.

Tax attorneys... gone
H&R Block and workalikes... gone
IRS "enrolled agents"... gone
Certified Financial Planners (to the extent they help people legally evade taxes)... gone
Turbo Tax and workalike software... gone
Estate planners (as most of them concentrate on helping estates avoid taxes)... mostly gone
Lots of others I can't think of... gone
Saved the best for last: The IRS... gone!!!!

Oh, happy day!!

[Dead Corpse]

None of those people need be out of a job completely. They will just need to retrain so that they can help the individual investor manage their money, instead of just trying to seperate them from it. Especially those agents whose soul responsibility it is to seperate said money at the point of a gun.

[RockinRight]

Yes, but the resulting savings for people who use those services go right back into the economy, creating new, better jobs.

Even though Boortz' FairTax book analysis of prices going down with wages going up (well take-home wages I mean) was somewhat flawed, the Fair Tax is still a win-win overall. You still save all that money that was needed for tax compliance, the IRS, etc. Plus, it's something much more acceptable to the Constitution.

[pigdog]

Some of the CPA types actually wish the income tax would go away as the income tax work is not too profitable and fraught with many unhappy clients.

H&R Block has actually said they'd PREFER to not do taxes, concentrating instead on the more profitable financial services advice they apparently now do.